Young film makers at Petroc college in Barnstaple worked with Amanda McCormack from North Devon Moving Image (NDMI) to produce two short videos to help promote the work of Survivors Alliance North Devon (SAND).

SAND provides a specialist counselling service in north Devon for adults who have suffered from sexual abuse or rape. Supported by a grant from the Wace Family Fund via Devon Community Foundation; two groups of learners from the foundation learning programme at Petroc took part in the project. The learners chose SAND from a number of local charitable organisations who pitched for the free digital media support.

Director of SAND, Karen Black says; "We were so delighted and felt privileged to be chosen by the students to design a multi media campaign that would help raise our profile in North Devon. The whole process was made simple and fun by both the students and Amanda and we were highly impressed with the level of student interest and maturity relating to this difficult subject. We are over the moon that through this project many more people in this area will be able to receive help from Survivors Alliance North Devon CIC, and realise that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Chantal Tonks, lead tutor on the Foundation Learning programme at Petroc adds; “The project is really beneficial to our learners, not only to find out more about the services that are available to them in their community but to support an organisation that they have chosen to raise awareness for and to take responsibility for the way the project is delivered. When they see the final results of their work it gives each learner a sense of pride and achievement at completing a media project, that can seem initially challenging, but through learning new skills and working together they have created something that is creative and meaningful. “